Jericho Reach
The Jericho Reach is a region of space close to the Eastern Fringe of the known Galaxy. This region of space was once a part of the Imperium in ancient days, remaining so for millennia until it fell into an age of isolation, disintegration and evil. It has been lost to the Imperium of Man for over four thousand years. During these long millennia, many of its worlds has become tainted by Chaos, while others have been infested by Xenos. With the significant discovery of the Jericho Maw Warp Gate in 777.41, the possibility of using this stable warp gate to launch a crusade into the Jericho Reach and reclaim this formerly great realm for the Imperium quickly found favour with the High Lords of Terra. Lord Militant Tiber Achilus formulated a plan to undertake this singular military campaign, and under his command mustered forces from the Adeptus Astartes, the Imperial Guard and Adepta Sororitas, and scores of Imperial Navy warships to enact the Imperium’s will. The High Lords were mindful, however, that the existence of such a gate and what it portended offered dire peril as well as possibility, and under a shroud of the deepest secrecy, with the complicity of the masters of both the Calixis Sector and the Departmento Munitorium, launched an Imperial crusade from a staging point far from the territory it intended to conquer. The Imperium soon found themselves faced with significant obstacles in bringing these goals into a fruition as the attempted re-conquest soon become mired in blood. The Crusade would prove to be a grinding conflict fraught with reversals of fortune and beset by enemies both unexpected and nightmarish. As for the Lord Militant, he would not live to see out its first decade. The Imperium of Man launched the mighty Achilus Crusade, a massive undertaking to reclaim this heavily contested area of space. Fighting a war on three fronts the Imperium brought every significant piece of technology and formidable military might at their disposal to bare, in order to achieve this goal, yet this Crusade might have been doomed to failure before it even began. For others turned covetous eyes over to the worlds and abundant resources of the Reach. The likes of the xenos, such as the Tau Empire pressed into the Reach for the Greater Good. On many of the forsaken worlds long ignored by the Imperium, the Ruinous Powers reigned, establishing a dark domain at the Reach's heart (which was unknown at the time) ruled by foul Daemon Princes and vile Chaos Lords. While these forces clashed for control over the multitude of worlds, the Great Devourer, too rose within this volatile region of space. A presumed splinter fleet of Hive Fleet Behemoth had made its way into the area and was consuming the newly reclaimed Imperial worlds. Due to their innate abilities to quickly adapt, the hive fleet was officially classified as a hive fleet within its own right, designated as Hive Fleet Dagon. While the war raged between these various forces, others with agendas far older than that of the Crusade moved amongst the tractless wastes between the stars of the Reach, watching over this area of the galaxy long before the shadow of evil befell it. They were the unique organisation of the Ordo Xenos known as the Deathwatch. Their vigilance has never wavered over the long millennia, as they have continued to stand sentinel from their Watch Fortresses and Watch Stations across the sector. Their intervention forebode a final outcome for the Imperial Crusade, which could have proven to be for either good or for ill. History Great Crusade The area of space now known as the Jericho Reach was claimed by the Emperor's Space Marine Legions during the Great Crusade over ten millennia ago and was then-called the Jericho Sector. Though there exists only few details of its founding, it is know that it was an exceptionally bloody campaign. The events of the Horus Heresy and its aftermath of civil war further devastated the worlds of the Sector. Nonetheless, in the following millennia untamed worlds were claimed and xenos empires were destroyed. The Jericho Sector became a bastion of Imperial might, carved from the cold wilderness of space and colonized by Mankind. Worlds that had been reduced to ash and rubble under the civil war were rebuilt into mighty industrial centers, populations grew in numbers and wealth and with them the splendour of the Jericho Sector. The old wounds from the Horus Heresy slowly disappeard due to the guarantee of order and stability in the sector. From the highest obsidian spires of the Hive World of Verronus to the glittering glass shrines of sainted Eleusis, the dominion of the Imperium covered more than a hundred worlds. Through the ravages of time, wars and other disasters the Jericho Sector remained a paragon of Imperial order and strength. Age of Shadow , which ended the isolation of the Jericho Reach from the Imperium of Mankind.]] Unfortunately, this age of prosperity wasn't meant to last. The decline began during the time of misrule, unbelief, and tyranny known as the Age of Apostasy in the early 36th Millennium. During this time of civil war, for reasons unkown, communication between the Jericho Sector and the core of the Imperium became more and more difficult. Astropaths had a increasinly hard time sending and reciving intact messages, and ships travelling in and out of the region were lost to warpstorms that gathered as if to increase the sector’s isolation. As if to add to the sector's problems a massive Ork Waaagh! of a scale unseen in millennia utterly severd the the great trade routes between the sector and the powerful worlds of the Imperial region of Ultramar to the galactic south. The Jericho Sector became marginalised and forgotten, ultimately slipping beyond the reach of the Imperium without a single scribe on Holy Terra noting its passing. A corrosive dread came to pervade the sector, after it was cut-off from the rest of the Imperium. Slowly, one by one, the planets under previous rule by the sector capital of Verronus slipped away. Some, fell to warring on their neighbours whether through paranoia or unbridled ambition; their leaders laid low by the their own flaws, or clutching to the promises of Dark Gods, others such as Verronus itself, succumbed to rebellion from within. Almost within a single generation, much of the Jericho Sector had slipped into anarchy and feral barbarism due to the isolation. When the last naval patrol was recalled to Kar Duniash for more pressing duties, they would report that the last tatters of Imperial order in the Jericho Sector were but small and ragged circles of light beset by the encroaching darkness. Soon these too fell, unsung and disregarded. The final ending of the Jericho Sector came when the great reassessment of the Domains of Man known as the Third Mesericordia Imperialis Mundi, was declared in M37 by the High Lords of Terra . Herein, the Jericho Sector, along with a dozen other sectors along the Eastern Fringe, were decreed no more until a Crusade could once again return them to the Imperium’s fold. The region was re-designated as the Jericho Reach, and so returned in name and nature to the darkness from which it had been raised almost 6 thousand years earlier. The warpstorms and temporal distortion that so isolated the Jericho Reach at time have never truly abated, while the Imperium’s claimed borders have shrunken further away from it still. As a result voyaging into the region remained a dangerous task only undertaken by the deathwatch and a few Inquisitors. This state of isolation changed, however, with the discovery and opening of the Jericho Maw Warp Gate which linked the Jericho Reach to the Calixis Sector, making this region accessible to the Imperium once again. Locations Known Systems 'Erioch System' ]] This star system is a place of mystery a foreboding. The central astral body within this system is the Erioch star, which is a crumpled, angry white dwarf whose slow death has been measured in eons. Seven planets - no larger in diameter than Holy Terra - circle this ancient star, orbiting perfectly in a circular pattern, their spacing distance between them astronomically exact. This worlds are nothing more than bare rock, completely devoid of life with no known life signs having ever existed. Even stranger, these planets bare no marks or craters that show signs of impacts with meteorites or other stellar debris. Circling the sixth planet is Watch Fortress of the Deathwatch. It is unknown why the Watch Fortress was placed in this isolated system. Unless granted the highest clearance and the most secret information, it is impossible for a Navigator to even locate Erioch within the warp. Even with the appropriate information, those wishing to visit the system must drop out of warp into Realspace at the system's edge, or not at all. 'The Blood Trinity' During the bygone days of the Jericho Sector, this system was once known as the Mataras Sisters and was regarded as a jewel of the Imperium. This system once supported four verdant and paradis-like Agri-worlds that served as a breadbasket for the planets of the sector core. The Age of Shadows heralded a slow descent into blasphemy as the abandoned human populations soon embraced barbarity and the false promises of the Chaos Gods. *'Mataras IV (Frontier World)' - This once verdant Frontier World was subjected to the final sanction of Exterminatus which was carried out by the Deathwatch in 920.M37. The three surviving worlds of Mataras became known as the Blood Trinity which thrived on internecine conflict and unceasing violence. 'Vanir System' Vanir is a system of inhabited worlds that was the site of a frantic battle between the forces of the Achilus Crusade and rebels loyal to the self-proclaimed Monarchs of the Kingdom of Vanir. Having withdrawn their forces after taking massive casualties from the advancing Tyranids of Hive Fleet Dagon, the desperate forces of Battlegroup Icarus soon became embroiled in a race to overcome the rebel forces that had taken possession of the system. Battle Fronts 'Orpheus Salient' The Orpheus Salient was once the most secure of the three battlefronts of the Achilus Crusade. The planets located Rimward of the Reach were made up of sparsely populated frontier worlds and a few formally Imperial worlds - many which had kept faith with the Imperial Creed. These still-loyal worlds even managed to maintain some haphazard contact with the Imperium, providing the Crusade's scouting forces with aid and intelligence. 'Known Worlds' *'Castobel (Hive World)' - A battered hive-world ruled by noble-born elite that remained loyal to the Imperium's ways through the long Age of Shadow. Not long after its rediscovery by the Achilus Crusade, Castobel faced the deadly threat from the encroaching Tyranid fleet of Hive Dagon. *'Eleusis (Shrine World)' - A former Shrine World that was once a site of holy pilgrimage, basking in serene holiness for five thousand years, during the Age of Shadow the devotions of the holy clerics were twisted to the worship of the Dark Gods of Chaos. *'Freya (Mining World)' - Freya was once a mining world, rich in raw materials which once fed the lost Forge Worlds within the Reach. During the the long millennia of the Age of Shadow the world fell into anarchy as the entire planet became a battleground for gangs, techno-barbarians, cultists and mutants. The remaining Imperial presence remained in a lone orbiting sensor array circling one of Freya's moons that served the Deathwatch in its secret vigil. But soon tragedy befell it, as the Tyranids made their presence known within the Reach in 814.M41. *'Hethgard (Fortress World)' - A former mining world which became sucked dry of its resources, the fortress engineers of the Achilus Crusade turned the mine-scarred surface into a formidable defensive bastion, effectively turning the world into one large fortress. Hethgaurd successfully defended itself from attack from the Tyranid menace of Hive Fleet Dagon. 'Acheros Salient' The Acheros Salient was the central advancing arm of the Achilus Crusade. It soon became bogged down in blood and infamy. It showed the least progress in terms of worlds captured and, even given the massive losses on the Orpheus Salient, this front consumed the greatest amount of Imperial lives and war materiel on the pyre of battle. 'Known Worlds' *'Karlack (Fortress World)' - Karlack was a Fortress world and the principle seat of the Achilus Crusade which contained the single most powerful concentration of the Imperium's military might within the Reach. 'Warzones' 'Cellebos Warzone' After the appalling reversal of fortune on the Acheros Salient, Lord Militant Tetrarchus resumed his assault on the region, pouring all reinforcements he could muster into a bloody war of grinding attrition that spanned over 50 star-systems and 25 years of struggle. The war focused around the control of key systems in what was later referred to as the Cellebos Warzone. 'Known Worlds' *'Khazant (War World)' - This former Imperial world became a renowned corsair stronghold, its oppressed population having long been enslaved to one warlord or another prior to the outset of the Achilus Crusade. The Imperial forces faced massive organised resistance on the heavily contested planet with control of the world swinging back and forth multiple times. *'Samech (Forge World)' - Samech was once an Imperial Forge world, an outpost of the Adeptus Mechanicus within the Jericho Sector. During the slow fall into barbarity and isolation that occurred during the Age of Shadow, Samech managed to maintain its power and independence far longer than any other worlds of the sector core. Also known as 'the iron pit', Samech became a haven for debased human renegades that travelled there to trade and barter. *'Vanity (Hive World)' - Vanity was once a former Hive world known as Corulsiem, a prominent world that was once the capital of the Cellebos sub-sector, and second in its economic and military might to Varrus itself. During the long millennia of the Age of Shadows, Corulsiem was soon riven with internal division and strife, which quickly devolved into a global, atomic conflagration which left the planet as a barren, radioactive and haunted wasteland of shattered hive cities and fallen grandeur. 'Known Stellar Phenomena' *'The Hadex Anomaly' - This malefic phenomena is similar to a Class III Warp disturbance, whose overlapping vortex of turbulence in the Immaterium spills over into Realspace, distorting reality and making stellar navigation and observation nearly impossible. The origins of this phenomena can be traced to an ill portended planetary alignment which occurred in 656.M40 - the result of some great and bloody design of mortal Chaos worshippers, whose forbidden ritual unleashed the abyss of the Warp into reality. Nearly a dozen inhabited worlds that made up of the core of the Jericho Sector of old was drowned within its hellish radiance, including the once vaunted Hive World of Varrus. This world fell into bloody civil war and was rumoured to have been transformed into a daemon world, where the servants of the Ruinous Powers planned the ultimate destruction of the Reach. *'Charon Stars' - The Charon Stars was the domain from which the Dark Powers were in control of the heretics that contested the Cellebos Warzone. It was here that the corrupted priests of Chaos and Chaos Lords made sacrificial offerings in order to appease the Anomaly itself, in an attempt to win favour from their Dark Gods. 'The Greyhell Front' The Greyhell Front was one of the two main battlezones where Imperial forces of the Achilus Crusade were concentrated. The Imperial Guard and Navy struggled to establish footholds close to Tau occupied space. This volatile region of space was regarded as a meat grinder by the troops serving there. 'Known Worlds' *'Baraban (Frontier World)' - *'Bekrin (Cardinal World)' - *'Dakinor (Dead World)' *'Ravacene (Death World)' - *'Veren (Feral World)' - Sources *''Deathwatch'' - Core Rulebook (RPG) *''Deathwatch - The Achilus Assault'' (RPG) Category:History Category:Imperial Campaigns Category:J Category:Imperium Category:Tau Empire Category:Tyranid Category:History Category:Imperial Campaigns Category:J Category:Imperium Category:Tau Empire Category:Tyranid